EDUCATION

You Really Want to Rat Me Out?

Virginia’s teacher tip line is a terrible idea

Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin is having a horrible, no good, very bad time trying to govern these days.

• A Northern Virginia judge declared that the new governor’s executive order making masks in school optional violates state law.
• Speaking of masks, the Guv also got called out during a political stunt recently for not wearing a mask in a grocery store.

“Governor, where is your mask?” a constituent hollered as Youngkin pretended to man a cash register in the D.C. suburbs.

“We’re all making choices today,” Youngkin replied — whatever that means.

“Yeah, look around you governor, you’re in Alexandria. Read the room, buddy!”

Of course, the convo was picked up on TV crews’ mics and broadcast on the evening news.

• And then there’s the so-called “tip line” Youngkin has set up to snitch on teachers.

This tattletale mechanism allows parents to report any teachers or school administrators for teaching allegedly “divisive” subjects, like critical race theory, in Virginia schools.

Of course, Virginia’s public K-12 schools have never taught the controversial CRT in our classrooms. Youngkin, of course, campaigned on the promise to eliminate this alleged curriculum from Virginia schools.

So, yeah, he made a phantom promise on the campaign trail about a phantom issue. Sounds right on-point to me.

I can only imagine how things are really going for Youngkin three or so weeks in. My experience, based on more than two decades in a high school classroom, would prove Youngkin’s premise — that parents would be willing to dig up dirt on their kids’ teachers, or get their kids to drop the dime on a teacher — is shaky at best, and ridiculous, at worst.

A few bad apples want to spoil it for the rest of us. But a lot of the parents who have recently shown up at school board meetings to vent their ire are really more the exception than the rule. I know I’m a small subset, but in my experience, parents in general are grateful for the help and intellectual nourishment we provide their kids in the classroom. And a teacher doesn’t have to be colossal to get kudos for her work during the school year.

Yes, I taught controversial memoirs, novels and non-fiction epics as part of my AP English curriculum. And while some of the topics we covered were controversial, I received very little pushback from parents. In fact, so many congratulated me for a job well-done that I created a digital folder, entitled “LOOK HERE,” which I shared with my administrators every couple years when I was up for review. What follows is but one example.

Dear Mrs. Nelson: If I don’t get the chance to meet with you during the graduation festivities, I want to make sure I don’t miss this opportunity to comment on the importance of what you do for the likes of parents like me.

Maya Angelou took my students into the dark corners of racism. She also opened their eyes to the horrors of rape, and the heinous nature of pure hatred. She came full circle by teaching them inner strength comes to the rescue in desperate times.

You have given my daughter tremendous opportunity to lead, to be responsible, to be dependable. For this I owe you heartfelt thanks. How well she met those challenges is likely not what her potential permits — yes, she sat on the couch in the back quite a bit — but you gave her the chance to grow, anyway.

Truman Capote uncovered the harsh realities of capital punishment. I pushed my students to look beyond the surface, to do some research and to form opinions on this incendiary topic. We discussed their findings in a series of Socratic Seminars, which not only taught them about themselves, but helped me form opinions, too, about the ramifications of what I taught.

I can only imagine the stress of your job, depending on these young people who are just beginning to develop these important character traits, but without these opportunities we end up with totally unprepared people beginning the “development process” in the workforce. You give your students an opportunity to understand the importance of dependability on a real level while there is still “hope” for growth.

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the fourth-most banned book in the United States. There’s more than one reason for this — Twain tackles slavery, racism, friendship and freedom in the years before the Civil War — but he also includes variations of the “N” word in his text 219 times. My classes explored the reasons for this, and our discussions weren’t always pretty. But I never received a single complaint — from parents or students — about the controversial novel, or the way I approached my pedagogical duties with respect to Twain and his views.

It is easy to be on your best in an all-eyes-forward classroom. Character is what happens when you are not in that kind of environment, when you are your own master and free to choose to be responsible — or not. My daughter is learning the importance of responsibility and dependability, and your course and your approach has done that more than any other.

I also taught two electives during my time in Room 215. My role as the adviser of the high school’s newspaper and yearbook brought some conflict, but most of that push-back was from administrators afraid of rocking the boat. In fact, the letter I’ve sprinkled throughout this essay comes from a parent whose daughter took both my English class as a junior and served on the newspaper staff all four years of high school.

It’s safe to say that if a teacher is honest and treats her students like human beings capable of making reasoned decisions, she won’t get much criticism from parents at all.

Again, thank you and bless you for your commitment to the “impossible dream.”

Sweet sentiments, which I very much appreciate still. I’d love to get this Mom’s take on Governor Youngkin’s teacher tip — er, snitch — line. According to news reports, the initiative has been ridiculed on “SNL’s” Weekend Update. TikTokkers relentlessly spam the online account. And fake tips keep flooding in.

I have a tip for you, Governor. Try fixing what’s wrong in your state instead of making hard-working teachers your targets.

“When someone shows you who they are,” Maya Angelou said, “believe them the first time.”

It’s only been three weeks, Governor Youngkin, but I can clearly see who you are. And I don’t like what I see very much.